It is on a hill surrounded by the green hills of Monferrato that the story of the ancient castle of Piea is told. Here, a few kilometers from the delightful villages of Cocconato and Montechiaro, history, art and mystery intertwine between the park and the eighty rooms of the medieval manor.
The Castle of Piea tells the story of the ghost of the noble Orsola, last descendant of the Roero family, who died in 1796 at the age of 24, while she gave birth to a child, who lived only a few minutes. Hence the existence of the legend and the ghost of the young.
A presence that the Tamietto, tenants of the manor from 1995, feel within the walls of the castle, which in the moonlit nights wanders among the rooms of the latter looking out from that balcony on which the owners confess to have photographed it.
Events and testimonies that have led Legends Investigations staff, made up of experts who are passionate about paranormal phenomena, to put themselves on the trail of the ghost, studying the case of the castle after finding the presence of the so-called White Lady and her child, frightened and with particular difficulties to communicate.
Presences confirmed by the vibrations detector and by the prompt response of presences to solicitations, as well as having collected images created with the technique of the metavision of the face of a man covered by the beard and that of a woman who could be just that of the young woman, presence that the tenants feel deeply close and positive for the castle, an integral part of that place where his short life lived.
Quoted for the first time by Pope Anastasio in a document of 1154, the castle saw Ludovico Roero in 1434, allied with the Marquis Paleologo di Monferrato, becoming lord of the feud and that castle which in 1436 returned to the Bishop hands of Percivalle Roero in 1473.
At the end of the seventeenth century, following fierce battles, after several disputes between Savoy and the Popes, it was Count Carlo Roero who began the restoration work that would have transformed the castle from an ancient stronghold to a noble residence. In this period it is in fact the realization of the magnificent and spectacular Ballroom and the beautiful adjoining rooms. Past, between the beginning and the end of the nineteenth century, from the Marquis Faussone di Clavesana to the illustrious Genoese family of the Bombrini family, it is now a private residence and a museum.
To be seen inside the precious frescoes dating back to 1762 by the painters Bernardino Fabrizio and Giovanni Galliari, masters of the “trompe d’oeil”, the imposing staircase of the entrance built on a project by the famous architect Filippo Juvarra and the precious Murano chandeliers.
Do not miss a visit to the castle during the spring floral event “Il Narciso Incantato”, when the garden offers a spectacular bulbous flowering.
The village of Piea, surrounded by the hills of Monferrato, is the setting for the ancient manor, which offers interesting routes with views of the surrounding hills and views of the castle. The parish church, dating back to the late sixteenth century, the seventeenth-century chapel of San Sebastiano and the chapel of the Blessed Virgin of the Snow, erected by a vote made by the inhabitants of the village for the liberation from the plague, are just some of the architectural ‘inhabited this corner of Monferrato lands.
